(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act the Governor General may allow any patient confined in a licensed house to be absent from such licensed house on trial for such period as he or she thinks fit and may at any time grant an extension of such period.
(2) A patient shall not be allowed to be absent on trial under this section unless a person enters into an agreement approved by the Governor General to take charge of such patient.
(3) If any patient allowed to be absent on trial from a licensed house under this section does not return at or before the expiration of the allowed period of absence, then unless a certificate signed by some medical officer certifying that such patient may safely be permitted to be at large is sent to the magistrate of the district within which such licensed house is situate, and also where practicable to the licensee of such licensed house, such patient at any time within 30 days from the expiration of such allowed period may be retaken as if he or she had escaped from such licensed house, or in case the licensee from whose custody the patient was allowed to be absent is unable or unwilling to resume the care and custody of such patient, may be dealt with as a person duly adjudged under this Act a person of unsound mind and a proper subject of confinement.